MEDIA RESOURCES

Senior Executives Go Back To School
SMU Cox launches unique leadership training program for area executives
Dallas (SMU) – This month, students across the nation sharpened their No. 2 pencils and headed back to school.  But statistics show an increasing number of students are returning to the classroom in their business suits. And many area companies are sending their top executives to leadership training at SMU Cox School of Business through the division of Executive Education.

On  August 28, 2006 24 high-potential senior managers from prominent area companies including Carreker, Dresser, Mission Foods, Park Place, Pavestone, Sabre-Holdings, Texas Instruments, and the City of Frisco met at SMU’s new James M. Collins Executive Education Center to focus on taking their leadership skills from transactional to transformational.  This year marks the premier offering of Advanced Leadership: High Potential; High Performance, and the program is completely sold out.  The overwhelming popularity of this offering isn’t surprising considering a recent study by Blanchard that found nearly 60 percent of executives say that developing potential leaders is their most pressing concern.

While there are many leadership programs available in the marketplace, most of them focus on processes.  However, the SMU Cox program is different.

“We’re teaching the ‘softer skills’ with hard models and tools and with academic rigor and discipline. This program is specifically designed to do this harder, deeper work,” said Marsha Clark, adjunct faculty member of SMU Cox Executive Education and president of Marsha Clark and Associates.  

The unique design of this program uses a variety of tactics to ensure the transfer of skills into meaningful and sustained change.  Key features include executive coaching; feedback loops that include instructors, participants, and co-workers; significant experiential components to effect immediate application in the workplace, and a multidimensional view of the manager as an individual, a group member, and part of a larger organization. It is not about coming to a seminar and being fed information; it is about taking an active part in learning in a workshop environment. 

One common benchmark suggests that 70 percent of management development occurs on the job; 20 percent occurs through other people; 10 percent occurs through formal training.  The best university programs can include all three as SMU Cox’s does: academic content, structured experiences, peer accountability and feedback from other participants and instructors.

Nancy Long, program participant sponsor for Sabre Holdings, says “This program provides an excellent opportunity for participants to get outside their day-to-day comfort zone and to learn in an environment where they are surrounded by other successful and motivated executives who bring their real world experiences to the table. Here, the soft skills are sharpened, the skills which truly differentiate the quality of our leadership. It’s ironic because the so-called softer skills really are the hard-to-address, hard-to-fix areas that keep you up at night.”

To learn more about SMU Cox Executive Education course offerings, or to sign up for next year’s leadership program, please contact Shirley Coyle, Assistant Director of Marketing and Sales at 214-768-3027 or visit www.cox.smu.edu/executive_education/openenrollmentprograms/leadership

About SMU Cox Executive Education
SMU Cox Executive Education offers new, innovative and flexible programs - both open and custom - that provide a relevant and dynamic learning experience for professionals, managers, and executives. Executive Education programs are offered in Dallas and Plano, as well as in-house for corporate clients. Programs provide skills development in areas such as management, leadership, sales and marketing, and accounting and finance.  By developing these skills, managers are able to make better decisions, resulting in positive business results. 

About SMU Cox
SMU’s Cox School of Business offers a full range of business education programs, including BBA, full-time MBA, Professional MBA (PMBA), Executive MBA (EMBA), and Executive Education. The school also offers a number of unique resources and activities for students, ranging from its Business Leadership Center (BLC), Caruth Institute for Entrepreneurship, and American Airlines Global Leadership Program (GLP) to its Associate Board Executive Mentoring Program and an international alumni network of more than 29,000. SMU Cox is ranked among the top business schools nationally and internationally by major publications, including BusinessWeek, Economist, Financial Times, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, and U.S. News & World Report.